On Tuesday 22 June, singer and film actor Kris Kristofferson turns 85 years old.
Kristoffer Kristofferson, as his full Swedish-sounding name sounds, is perhaps an example of the fact that one should far from always see the dog on the hair.
Behind the authentic musician appearance, Kristofferson hides a military education as a helicopter pilot. Like after a scholarship stay in the British university city of Oxford in the 1960s, he has a degree in English literature.
Born in Brownsville, Texas, it was the family’s expectation that he would continue its military traditions: his grandfather was a Swedish officer who emigrated to the United States, his father became a major general in the US Air Force.
But Kristofferson chose the music despite his pilot education. Bought time in studios in Nashville and made with his guitar demos, several of which were handed over to the country star above them all, Johnny Cash.
“Me and Bobby McGee” hit the top of the US charts after singer Janis Joplin recorded the song shortly before her death in 1970 at the age of just 27. Joplin’s at the same time powerful and skinless voice cut through the airwaves and grabbed the audience’s hearts.
Kristofferson has many other hit songs on his conscience, including “Help Me Make It Through The Night” from 1968 and “Sunday Morning Comin ‘Down,” which legend Johnny Cash recorded in 1970.
Later, in 1985, he began with him, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings a successful musical collaboration in the group “The Highwaymen”, which released several albums in the following decade.
As if his music career was not full enough, Kris Kristofferson has starred in a sea of films.
He was Rubber Duck in the trucker film “Convoy” from 1978, starred in 1976 with Barbra Streisand in the romantic drama “A Star Is Born” (which earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor), and in 1973 he starred in Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid “, for which Bob Dylan wrote music.
Kris Kristofferson is married for the third time.
His second wife was the singer Rita Coolidge, whom he married from 1973 to 1980 and had a musical couple with.
In 1983, he married Lisa Meyers, with whom he has five children. From his two previous marriages, he has one and two children.
Source: The Nordic Page